Old Firm bosses eager for clash.
Ronny Deila wants to play Rangers soon.
And the Celtic manager’s Old Firm counterpart Ally McCoist has admitted he feels his side are more ready now to face the Hoops than at any time since they last met on April 29, 2012.
The Glasgow giants haven’t crossed swords in over two years since the Light Blues were liquidated and demoted to the lower leagues.
They’ve been kept apart in both the League Cup and Scottish Cup in the last two seasons. But that could soon change if they negotiate their way through the next round of the League Cup.
Rangers travel to Falkirk on Tuesday night while Celtic entertain Hearts 24 hours later.
When asked if he’d welcome a match with Rangers, Deila said: “Of course, that is a big game. I think everybody is looking forward to those games so it’s fantastic if we can have an Old Firm match again.”
Meanwhile, when asked about the prospect of taking on Celtic this season,
McCoist replied: “I would take it in the Final if you were offering it to me! Listen, Celtic are still the best team in the country by some considerable way.
“I don’t think there is any doubt about that, and I think everyone would expect them to win the title comfortably. Celtic are still THE team to beat, whether it’s in the league or in a cup competition,
“I certainly wouldn’t have fancied playing them two seasons ago, I wouldn’t have been overly excited about it last year and I can contain myself this year.
“All I would say, from our point of view, is I would hope most people can see an improvement in our team.
“However, I’m sure we can all agree that we still have some considerable way to go to reach the point we want to reach and that’s challenging Celtic for the league and cups on a regular basis.”
Rangers struggled at Falkirk in their last visit last month when they scraped a 2-0 win with late goals from Lewis Macleod and Nicky Clark, but McCoist reckons they are in better shape now.
And he sees no reason why his team cannot emulate the feats of St Mirren, Kilmarnock or St Johnstone in recent seasons and become major domestic winners again.
He said: “I think we are now in a position where we are the same as every other team outside of Celtic, in that we have a chance of winning a cup.”
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